Portman looks at presidential run

Rob Portman is continuing to weigh a presidential run even as he leans toward running for reelection, he said in an interview on Friday afternoon.

The Ohio Republican senator doesn’t have a precise timeline for his decision, but with his party’s triumph on Tuesday behind him he said he’s finally got some time to think about whether to seek the presidency or commit 100 percent to running for reelection in the swing state of Ohio in 2016.

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He’s currently “planning to run for reelection” but declined to rule out a run at the White House.

“I am going to take a look at the opportunity of the presidential race. But you know, right now, I’m excited about these results Tuesday night. I’ll be talking to family, talking to friends and some who’ve been encouraging me and analyze the situation. But I’m not planning at this point to change my approach, which is legislating,” Portman said in a telephone interview.

Several of his colleagues like Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida are also considered top 2016 contenders as is Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who was just reelected. Asked if the 2016 decisions of others would affect his decision-making, Portman said no.

“You decide, in my case, what’s in the interest of the country,” he said. “The question is: ‘What’s the most effective role that I can play?’”

Portman emerged as a deal-making Republican player over the past two years, helping hammer out a bill to extend expired unemployment benefits that passed the Senate, building a bipartisan energy efficiency bill with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) that sputtered over procedural warfare and ultimately voting against the Senate’s immigration reform legislation after trying to receive a separate roll call vote on his amendment.

He said his next few months in the Senate will be spent playing a similar role as he weighs a presidential run. He will try to move the Portman-Shaheen bill again along with approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline next year, advocate for not just trying to repeal Obamacare but also replacing it and be “very, very involved in talking to Democrats and Republicans alike.”

Outside the Senate, Portman was a key cog in Senate Republicans’ quest to take back the majority, sending more than $20 million toward Senate Republicans’ campaign arm — about a fifth of the total contributions from sitting Republican senators to the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. And his work on behalf of the NRSC brought him to the early presidential states of New Hampshire and Iowa, allowing him to introduce himself to voters in those key states.

Now, he said is time to reflect on the GOP’s success and decide whether he wants to jump into a wide-open GOP presidential primary.

“I’ve been laser-focused on 2014 and I finally got a good night’s sleep last night,” he said. “Now I’ve got some time to start thinking.”